Wooranna Park where school is like Disneyland

Logan Nicholson is a teacher and technology expert, so imagine what the 10-year-old will achieve by the time he reaches high school.

At Wooranna Park Primary School students like Logan, who have expertise in specialist areas, teach other children.

At Wooranna Park Primary School students like Logan, who have expertise in specialist areas, teach other children.Credit:Angela Wylie

This year Logan has been teaching information and communications technology to grade 3 children and his grade 4 classmates at the Dandenong North school. He teaches them to use the online game Minecraft in which players build projects and embark on adventures together.

"It's not just Minecraft, sometimes it's other things related to technology," he says.

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Principal Ray Trotter wants school to be like Disneyland, not with rides but excitement and activity. "It's not a program where children have to sit still in one place all day," he says.

The school has an "enigma portal" where students learn all manner of things from studying the galaxy to exploring art galleries through virtual reality programs.

The room, which resembles the control pit of a sci-fi spacecraft, has three flat panel monitors and a green screen for film projects.

Mr Trotter believes students learn much more by teaching others and applying their knowledge to real-life situations than being stuck behind a desk.

Students have been working with St Columba Anglican School, in Port Macquarie, to design the school of the future. They meet through Google Hangouts and then work in Minecraft to build it.

Other students have chosen to learn Korean and have formed a relationship with a teacher in Korea while their language teacher learns along with them. Children learn computer programming and, with a qualified engineer, build robots that can hurl a ball at mini soccer goals.

One student is learning about Alzheimer's disease, dementia and art therapy with a staff member at Emmy Monash Aged Care, which is home to Jewish Holocaust survivors.

Mr Trotter says students are encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning. And most are visibly excited about what they're doing, he says.

"When you give that to children it's very hard to take it away from them and they'll fight for it," he says.

In another room the children explore the world and skies in the double-storey Dragon Boat, which is the size of a yacht. It has an interactive whiteboard and a maritime wooden steering wheel connected to a large screen so students can navigate Google Earth and travel thousands of kilometres into the sky.

The school has also joined the virtual currency age and accepts payments in bitcoin.

Despite the innovations, Mr Trotter says, technology is his Achilles heel. "I think computers hate me but I recognise they're the great enablers. I just got a new phone but I'm struggling to learn. It woke me up at 5am with a bird whistling."

Mr Trotter, who has been principal at the school for 28 years, has employed a "tech" worker since the 1990s.

But when he recently wanted to book an advertisement to hire a "tech geek", he says a local paper refused. "They said 'geek' is not very nice. Of course geek now is a term of praise."

This year Mr Trotter hired eLearning architect Kieran Nolan who encouraged the school to accept bitcoin and oversees the technology program, which includes 3D printing.

Mr Trotter says technology expands the educational possibilities. "We really need to develop the entrepreneurs for the world for the future," Mr Trotter says. "They're sitting in classrooms now."